DEFINITIONS
Adiabatic Compression
An adiabatic process is a process wherein no heat is transferred between the material undergoing the process and the surrounding environment. The temperature of a gas will increase during adiabatic compression even though it receives no heat from any source.
Gas/Gaseous
A gaseous material, i.e., a gas, may comprise may comprise a single gas or a mixture of gases in any combination. In addition, a mixture of gas and solid particles and/or liquid particles of such size that the mixture satisfactorily performs as a gas in an embodiment of my invention will also be called a gas.
Examples of gases according to my definition include: 1) pure oxygen, 2) a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, etc. (air), 3) a mixture of gasoline vapor in oxygen, 4) gasoline vapor in air, 5) liquid fuel (gasoline, diesel, alcohol) droplets in air and 6) a mixture of flour dust particles) in air. Of these examples, only 1) does not permit a chemical reaction within itself. 2) may form nitrous oxides under certain conditions. Examples 3), 4) and 5) are commonly thought of as being flammable or explosive but may not be either if the fuel/air ratio is outside the flammability limit. 6) is not commonly thought of as being explosive but can be, again depending on the "fuel"/air ratio and the fineness of the dust.
Throughstream
Throughstream references the major part of matter which appears as feedstock (defined under I.B.1 below) and becomes product (also defined under I.B.1 below). In the apparatus which is the subject of my invention, some of the atoms constituting the feedstock may be lost from the throughstream in passing through my apparatus while additional atoms may be picked up by the feedstream and appear in the product. The feedstream follows and is generally delineated by the stream of those atoms which pass from the feedstock supply or "source" to the product receiver or "sink" without regard to lost or gained atoms.
Inert Gas
As will be discussed herein below, a mixture of fuel and air may not be flammable if the ratio of fuel and air is outside certain limits. Such a mixture is to be considered to be inert for purposes of the present Specification. Broadly, an inert gas is a gas which does not undergo significant chemical reactions under the conditions to which it is exposed.
Under this definition and as will be understood from the following teachings, it is possible for a volume of fuel and air having a uniform composition throughout to be inert in one region of the volume which is at a low temperature and to be chemically active and not inert in another region where the temperature of the same composition is at a higher temperature.
Oxygen in the common usage is not considered to be inert since, if it is mixed with fuel, it may provide a combustible mixture: Nitrogen is commonly considered to be inert since no ratio of fuel and nitrogen is considered to be flammable.
Please note that, until mixed with fuel, oxygen is inert. For purposes of this Patent, inert refers to the properties that exist, not what properties could exist.
Pressure Wave Pressure Range
At any given point in a gas through which a sound is travelling, the sound wave of any amplitude will cause pressure variations which vary from a maximum to a minimum to a maximum over the time that one wave length passes that point. The pressure wave pressure range will be defined herein as the difference in the maximum and minimum pressures which appear during the passage of a wave past a point.